Practice report
NASCAR Cup Watkins Glen
Bowman tops first Cup practice at WGI, near-miss for Elliott
Alex Bowman rocketed to the top of the speed chart in the final minutes of Saturday’s first NASCAR Cup Series practice.
Jim Utter
Edited: Aug 3, 2019, 5:34 PM
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Bowman, who doesn’t pride himself on being a very good road racer, topped the speed chart wat Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International with an average lap speed of 125.888 mph, knocking Kyle Busch from the top spot (125.786 mph).
In three Cup series starts at the Glen, Bowman’s best finish was 14th last year.
Last week’s race winner, Denny Hamlin, ended up third (125.642 mph), Chase Elliott – who won this race a year ago – was fourth and Kyle Larson completed the top-five.
Rounding out the top-10 Ryan Blaney, Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski, Erik Jones and Joey Logano.
About eight minutes into the session, Matt Tifft spun off Turn 5 and briefly blocked the track, which brought out a caution.
Elliott narrowly avoided slamming into Tifft. Tifft didn’t appear to do any significant damage to his No. 36 Ford. The track returned shortly thereafter to green-flag conditions.
After 20 minutes, Matt DiBenedetto developed a flat left-front tire after running through the bus stop. He slowly brought his No. 95 Toyota back to the garage area without incident.
Cla # Driver Manufacturer Laps Time Gap Interval Mph 1 88 
Alex Bowman Chevrolet 20 1'10.062 125.888 2 18 Kyle Busch Toyota 19 1'10.119 0.057 0.057 125.786 3 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota 23 1'10.199 0.137 0.080 125.643 4 9 Chase Elliott Chevrolet 22 1'10.210 0.148 0.011 125.623 5 42 Kyle Larson Chevrolet 19 1'10.241 0.179 0.031 125.568 6 12 Ryan Blaney Ford 20 1'10.445 0.383 0.204 125.204 7 19 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota 20 1'10.634 0.572 0.189 124.869 8 2 Brad Keselowski Ford 22 1'10.697 0.635 0.063 124.758 9 20 Erik Jones Toyota 18 1'10.699 0.637 0.002 124.754 10 22 Joey Logano Ford 15 1'10.799 0.737 0.100 124.578 11 37 Chris Buescher Chevrolet 17 1'10.814 0.752 0.015 124.552 12 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet 16 1'10.835 0.773 0.021 124.515 13 24 William Byron Chevrolet 20 1'10.915 0.853 0.080 124.374 14 14 Clint Bowyer Ford 19 1'10.988 0.926 0.073 124.246 15 95 Matt DiBenedetto Toyota 15 1'11.093 1.031 0.105 124.063 16 4 Kevin Harvick Ford 22 1'11.164 1.102 0.071 123.939 17 1 Kurt Busch Chevrolet 19 1'11.189 1.127 0.025 123.896 18 21 Paul Menard Ford 20 1'11.266 1.204 0.077 123.762 19 10 Aric Almirola Ford 20 1'11.276 1.214 0.010 123.744 20 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Ford 16 1'11.290 1.228 0.014 123.720 21 8 Daniel Hemric Chevrolet 19 1'11.333 1.271 0.043 123.645 22 34 Michael McDowell Ford 18 1'11.373 1.311 0.040 123.576 23 41 
Daniel Suarez Ford 18 1'11.602 1.540 0.229 123.181 24 96 Parker Kligerman Toyota 16 1'11.639 1.577 0.037 123.117 25 6 Ryan Newman Ford 15 1'11.659 1.597 0.020 123.083 26 3 Austin Dillon Chevrolet 23 1'11.720 1.658 0.061 122.978 27 13 Ty Dillon Chevrolet 14 1'11.742 1.680 0.022 122.941 28 38 David Ragan Ford 11 1'11.902 1.840 0.160 122.667 29 47 Ryan Preece Chevrolet 17 1'11.915 1.853 0.013 122.645 30 15 Ross Chastain Chevrolet 14 1'12.125 2.063 0.210 122.288 31 00 Landon Cassill Chevrolet 12 1'12.237 2.175 0.112 122.098 32 36 Matt Tifft Ford 15 1'12.419 2.357 0.182 121.791 33 32 Corey Lajoie Ford 17 1'12.528 2.466 0.109 121.608 34 51 Cody Ware Chevrolet 10 1'13.573 3.511 1.045 119.881 35 52 Josh Bilicki Chevrolet 4 1'14.283 4.221 0.710 118.735 36 43 Darrell Wallace Jr. Chevrolet 3 1'27.891 17.829 13.608 100.352
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